Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Recently, an Everglades airboat captain lost his
hand to an American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) during
a tour. Feeding, harassing or molesting alligators is punishable with a maximum
fine of up to $500 and 60 days and jail. Losing your limbs or your life is an
additional punishment for bad behavior.

In all of my years in the Everglades I have seen
people do some dumb things around these giant reptiles. I watched a mother with
a shovel in one hand and a bag of mystery meat in the other feed a wild
alligator as her small children stood by and watched. The shovel she claimed
was to hit the alligator over the head if it approached. I explained to her the
first rule of alligator etiquette. Don’t do dumb things. I explained the law
and she left (and probably to return another day).

I watched in horror as a European couple walked
their child down to the edge of the water and backed away to take a picture. No
doubt the picture of a small child with a six foot alligator just feet away
might have impressed someone but I carefully approached and pantomimed the
first rule. They didn’t speak English, but “don’t do dumb things” was easily
articulated with two arms making a chomping motion.

I watched two teenage boy inexplicably chasing an
eight foot alligator down the main road in the Everglades National Park. I
stopped them and asked them what was going to happen when they caught up to the
alligator. They had no clue. The alligator found an opening in the mangroves
and slipped away.

The law has a purpose. Alligators have a natural
fear of humans. In fact there have been less than 600 wild alligator attacks in
Florida since 1948 and only 23 of those were fatalities. Of those attacks, most
were either alligators that were fed, alligators that were being handled
(molesting) or occurred when someone was swimming in the water with them.

Once an alligator
loses its fear of people it becomes a dangerous alligator. If you dangle a
piece of chicken in front of an alligator, it’s going to bite the hand that
feeds it.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

The bird is beautiful with deep green plumage on its
head and back, rusty-colored feathers around the neck, a long pointed beak and
a deceivingly long neck. From a riverside perch, Green Herons can extend their
neck great lengths to the water and snap up an unsuspecting fish.

The Heron was found in shin-high grass in the Harns
Marsh in Lehigh Acres, Florida. As I peddled by, I expected it to fly and when
it didn’t I considered it was injured. I parked the bike and stepped towards
it. The bird rolled on to its back and offered its feet in a meek attempt to
defend itself. I placed my hat over its head and examined what I believed was
an injured wing. The bird could not fly. I carefully placed him under my arm
and headed for home, chanting softly “please don’t bite me”.

What I have done so far and what I will do is nothing
exceptional. Rescuing injured wildlife is something that everyone with the
capacity to do, should. What the rehabilitators do is something extraordinary
and should be supported. Chances are you have a wildlife rehabilitation center
nearby (and this is your chance to give them a shout out). For me, the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of
Wildlife (C.R.O.W) in Sanibel, FL is the closest. They
have a wide reaching network of volunteers who are willing to pick up the
animals on location or at designated facilities.

Back at home I placed the heron in an animal
carrier. I drop the bird off at the local vet’s office who secures it in a safe
area. Later, a volunteer will pick the bird up along with an injured turtle that
is awaiting transport. Once at the clinic, they will assess the injury and with
good fortune and good medicine, have the animal back in the wild as soon as
possible.

Consider the great lengths these rehabilitation
centers go to for these wild animals and consider supporting their cause. Help
injured wildlife. Volunteer to be a transporter. Donate to their organization.
These clinics and the wildlife need all the help they can get.

Friday, July 27, 2012

The Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is a nine-mile long,
third of a mile wide, linear strand of forest in Fort Myers, Florida. I assume
the name “Nine Mile Cypress Slough Preserve” had already been taken. The
2500-acre preserve is home to a remarkable diversity of plants and wildlife,
many of which can be seen on a two and half mile boardwalk.

My dad and I came out here years ago and while others were
quick to speed around the circuit we stopped and sat on a bench. We watched
Green Anoles flaring their dewlaps in a reptilian show of dominance. We watched
a Yellow Rat Snake glide between cypress knees. We spotted a female NorthernCardinal flitting from branch to branch and we listened to a Carolina Wren belt
out an unimaginably loud call for such a small bird. A couple of people walked
by at a brisk pace and dejectedly remarked that there was nothing to see here.
I’ve heard this complaint repeated many times through the years no matter where
I go. I’m hoping they’re referring to the wildlife and not me.

I spent Father’s Day at the Six Mile Cypress this year. The
rains have yet to fill the swamp and I found myself saying how little there was
to see. Thinking about my visit with my father, my wife and baby stopped and
took it all in.

Clinging to a Pop Ash, about ten feet off the dry swamp
floor was a beautiful Florida Butterfly
Orchid (Encyclia tampensis). This
bee pollinated epiphyte (a plant that grows on another plant) gets its name
from the way the flowers dance in the wind like butterflies. The relatively
common orchid blooms from May through August from central Florida south through
the Everglades. The plant is not parasitic but does get support from the tree
and nutrients and water from its heightened position.

We spotted five different flowers in the preserve today
which is five more than I’ve seen before here. It helped to have beautiful
yellow flowers cast about in the breeze but I might have missed them had I not
stopped to look up and around.

I couldn’t be with my father today but here are some flowers
for Father’s Day.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I pushed
my sister off the roof our house once. I meant no harm. We were simply filming
what we expected would be the big winner on America’s Funniest Videos. When her
cue came and she didn’t jump, I pushed her. That’s what big brothers do. She
was fine. Anyway I have two more sisters where that one came from.

Blue-footed Boobies (Sula nebouxii) are occasional visitors to the
United States but they nest primarily along the Pacific from Mexico south to
Peru. They are opportunistic nesters, laying between 1-3 eggs on the ground
inside a curious white ring. The eggs are laid and incubated asynchronously and
hatch in the order in which they were laid. If times are good, everyone gets
fed and fledged. When food is scare, competition sets in among the hatchlings who
participate in siblicide. They kill their own brothers and sisters. In theory,
the first hatchling has the upper hand, or wing as it were, which they use to
push the younger siblings out of the nest. In some cases they can push them off
a cliff edge but here’s where the mysterious white ring comes into play. What
looks like a monochromatic circle of spin art is a fecal ring. The female will
rotate around the center of the nest and squirt feces and uric acid in a scattershot
pattern.

During a
trip to Ecuador I had an opportunity to see the nesting behaviors and artistic
displays firsthand. The Blue-footed Boobies will let you approach and seemingly
don’t even recognize your presence until you step across the magic white fecal
line (which I did not do out of respect for the wildlife). Now facing a threat,
her pointed beak becomes all business. Anything within the circle conversely
must be protected.

A hatchling
does not understand this. They understand hunger and survival. When they push
their siblings, hatched or unhatched, across the magic line, the female booby
suddenly earns her name. Beyond the line, her young become aves non grata.

It had
never occurred to me that with one less mouth to feed I’d have a greater
opportunity for more food. In fact our incident on the roof had the opposite
effect. No dessert that night and no more access to the roof.

Monday, July 23, 2012

To take from others that which is not yours would seem an
easy way to acquire any number of things. Treasure comes to mind. Regurgitated
squid as well. As long as men have sailed the oceans there have been pirates
plundering the belongings of others and as long as birds have taken to the
skies, there have been certain species that would steal rather than hunt on
their own. The colonial roosting, coast-dwelling Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) is one such bird. While they are quite capable of plucking
flying fish and other pelagic species from the ocean’s surface, they have the
unscrupulous habit of pestering fellow avian species into reluctantly giving up
their meals.

Many of Ecuador’s islands, from the far flung Galapagos
(over 500 miles off the South American coast) to Isla de la Plata (just a few
miles from shore) were famed pirate hideouts. A stone throw from the rocky
cliffs of Islamar is Isla Salango, home to colonies ofBlue-footed Boobies (Sulane bouxii), Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis). The island’s high cliffs, draped in tropical vegetation
and capped with stone turrets provide excellent habitat safe from many
terrestrial predators, but the Blue-footed Boobies must keep a watchful eye on
their piratical island neighbors. Frigatebirds target boobies returning to the
island with an obvious crop full of recently captured food. The frigates are
light-weight, aerial acrobats, weighing in at no more than three and a half
pounds with a wingspan nearing six feet. Their ability to pursue and harass
boobies and other coastal birds provides them an additional food source besides
scouring the seas themselves.

As I stand on the mainland of Islamar, I watch the
long-beaked frigates gliding on an imperceptible wind. For hours they drift
back and forth across this span of sea. Beyond the limits of my vision, males
return to the island with sticks and vegetation for the females who build the
nest for a singular egg that both will tend to for nearly two months. The young
will remain with the mother for up to eighteen months and by age five they will
have learned that the entire ocean contains treasure to feast upon, even if
someone else found it first.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

I was recently in Ecuador and while I certainly expected to add a few birds to my life list while touring
the jungle, I hadn’t expected to discover my first Groove-billed Ani (Crotophagasulcirostris) while strolling my son in an urban park in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s
largest city.

I spotted my first Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani)
in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Florida back in 1993 and have not seen one
since. Anis are slightly larger than a Blue
Jay (Cyanocitta cristata),
members of the Cuckoo family and look like a cross between a crow and a parrot.
Their distinctively stout bill clearly separates this tropical black bird from
anything similar.

During our stay in Ecuador,
my wife, son and I stayed with my in-laws in Guayaquil,
a sprawling 125 square mile city on the banks of GuayasRiver.
Their modest, three bedroom home in the heart of the city played host to
grandparents, aunts, uncles, dozens of cousins and many friends during our
stay. The size of this close-knit “family” seemed as expansive as the city and
it was clear that not only was every friend and family member welcome in this
home, each of their homes were a welcome extension of the family compound. (I
believe the 85+ cousins were raised together and are genuinely close.)

Taking no exception to this, but finding it somewhat
unfamiliar, I would clear my head on a daily basis by strolling my son down the
street to the local park where I discovered my second ani. The locals playing basketball
eyed me suspiciously as I photographed the birds. To most people I suspect, the
anis are just birds. Upon closer inspection of the photos I realized that not
only were the birds anis, but they were Groove-billed Anis with distinct ridges
along the bill.

Groove-bills nest in Texas
and are occasional visitors to Florida
and other states. They are also found throughout Central America and along the
coast from Columbia down to Peru. Both
species of anis are unique in that they are communal breeders. Only three
percent of bird species exhibit such behavior. Essentially one to five
monogamous pairs of anis defend a territory and build a single nest in which
the females lay their eggs. Each member is involved in incubation of the eggs
and care of the young, but this does not exclude all competition. Occasionally
females will push eggs out of the nest that are not their own to assure the successful
hatching of theirs.

I spotted two pairs of anis in the park during strolls with
my son, an only child. As I wheeled him back to his grandparent’s home I
considered the effort required for two people to raise one child versus many
parents helping raise many kids. With such a loving family, I can’t imagine any
cousins have ever been kicked out of the nest.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

When the fruit fell from the tree it clanged on the hood of
the car with the force of a well hit baseball. It rolled off the grill, falling
to the pavement with the sound of the crack of a bat. The rock hard exterior of
the fruit had cleaved into four neat quarters, each maintaining a slim
connection to the adjacent quarter. Inside, several dozen reddish-brown, winged
seeds had separated from the core, while a few had been ejected out upon
impact. Today, this is a commonplace occurrence in department store and grocery
store parking lots of South Florida where the West Indian Mahogany (Swietenia mahagon) has been planted.

The long sought-after hardwood is native to many islands in
the Caribbean as well as extreme South Florida.
Over harvesting has reduced the range and abundance of this tropical species,
which most likely found its way to Florida
millennia ago on the winds or waves churned up by tropical storms or
hurricanes.

Shoppers might find it hard to believe that the seemingly
ubiquitous tree that has been planted prolifically is recognized as a
threatened species. Most wild specimens are found on the hardwood hammocks (aka
tree islands) of the Everglades. Mahogany can
grow to fifty feet in height with a sixty foot spread. It’s an excellent shade
tree and as landscapers recognize the importance of using native species, the
mahogany is found more and more in urban
areas.

The adage “never park beneath a coconut tree”, which is
understandably a useless sentiment for most of North
America, should apply to the West Indian Mahogany as well. The
problem though, is the popularity of this species in parking lots and the
inability of most people to identify it. The main telltale clue is the brown
mahogany fruit growing upright on a tufted stalk. At this time of the year, a
good sized tree could have fifty or more. They don’t all fall at once. Some
ripen, split and expel their seeds while still attached to the tree. But the
rest? Bombs away.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

What do James Joule, Daniel Fahrenheit, Charles Richter,
Heinrich Hertz, Isaac Newton, Georg Ohm, James Watt, Allessandro Volta and
Shaquille O’Neal have in common? They all have units of measure named after
them.

When the largest Burmese
Python (Python molurus bivittatus)
ever found in the Everglades was discovered,
the Washington Post described the 17 1/2 foot exotic beast as “more than twice
as long as former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is tall.” Technically Shaq
stands 7” 1’ – so really the snake would be 2.5 “Shaqs” long. Naturally I
pictured an engorged constrictor with two and half of the fifteen time, NBA
All-Star in its belly. Eating a 325 pound Shaq might be a stretch, although
another Python was captured recently that had consumed a 76 pound White-tailed Deer.

Most of the White Pelicans are heading out of Florida. They’ve spent
the last few months feeding along the coast in a manner entirely different than
their Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)cousinswho dive for their food. White Pelicans work in groups on the
surface of the water and round up fish in the shallows. When the fish are
trapped, they dunk their bills into the water and scoop up their prey.

As we progress through spring, developing thermal updrafts
allow for the pelicans to migrate en masse to their breeding grounds in the
mid-western United States
and central portions of Canada.
Their massive wingspan allows them to rise quickly in the thermal column and
soar for long distances at high altitudes. Flocks of hundreds can be spotted
travelling together at this time of the year

Who’s to say if this unit of measure will stick? Consider
the measure of a man is not by his free throw percentage but how he stacks up next
to enormous snakes and gigantic birds.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Wherever I wander, I keep one eye on the ground and one eye ahead in search of the next fun thing to write about. Occasionally this method leads to an inspiring, albeit, cross-eyed vision. Green Briars (Smilax sp.) are a particularly nasty, thorny vine. Field Sandspurs (Cenchrus incertus) are alarmingly painful and hurt as bad being pulled out as when they went in. The Florida Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa) is the grand daddy of local thorny plants with long, sturdy spines attached to fleshy, succulent pads. So far I’ve had the good fortune of avoiding them. A friend of mine? Not so lucky.

Watching someone stomp out of the woods like Yosemite Sam with a cactus pad and spines sticking out of their leg is cartoonishly comical. But it’s best to keep your amusement to yourself. It was hard not to feel his pain as he yanked each spine from his shin. In addition to the obvious barbs, smaller tufts of hair-like spines called glochids are located closer to the pad and can cause serious irritation.

Despite being torn from the parent plant, the cactus pad that ended up in my friend’s shin and subsequently discarded, is capable of putting down roots and continuing to grow. Prickly Pears are right at home in an astounding diversity of environments, from the coastal dunes of Massachusetts, to the sandstone cedar glades in Kentucky to the saw palmetto scrub of Florida. One thing they don’t tolerate is shade, but where there is sun, watch out for the Indian Fig as it’s also called.

In Florida, Prickly Pears bloom all year, producing a waxy, yellow flower that grows at the top of the pad. Eventually an edible, red “fig” remerges. Both fruit and pad are edible but all spines and glochids have to be removed. If you don’t want it stuck in your leg you certainly don’t want to ingest it.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

When I bought my house a few years ago, a realtor advised me
that the location I was interested in was undesirable because it was
overwhelmed with “vegetative fuel”. That’s a fancy euphemism for “trees” in the
business. I found another realtor and bought a house surrounded by beautiful
Slash Pines, Live Oaks and Saw Palmettos.

Over the last few weeks my town has been plagued by
wildfires. With an exceptionally long dry season and little rain in the
forecast, the vegetative fuel forest that has enveloped the neighborhood now seems
foreboding. Despite the lack of any pattern, arson was suspected for each fire,
making the situation all the more concerning.

On April 17th, a 5-acre brush fire broke out up
the street, consuming one house and charring neighboring property. One burnt
squirrel was discovered at the base of the power pole leading to the home and
some began to blame the squirrel population for the outbreak of wildfires in
the area.

Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis)
are well known for their high wire acts. As nimble as they may be while
crossing a line, if they touch a second line they can create a surge,
electrocuting the animal and in this case, sending a flaming squirrel to the
ground and starting a fire.

This isn’t the first time it has happened and it won’t be
the last. Dry conditions continue in South Florida
and hungry squirrels are on the move. I’m hoping for rain because we need it but
I’m also concerned for the squirrels climbing around in the vegetative fuel in
my back yard.

The photograph of the
Eastern Gray Squirrel was taken in the mangrove forest
of Secret Woods County Park in Fort Lauderdale, FL
– far from any power lines.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Cross-pollination is most commonly achieved by wind or
insect. Pollen from the male part of the flower is transferred to the female
part of another flower of the same species. Insects are lured in with the
promise of nectar and are the ambivalent dupes of this well orchestrated
exchange of genetic material. Not all promises are what they seem.

My good friends Milla and Richard and I were wildflower
hunting on the CREW lands in Collier County, Florida
recently. A prescribed fire and an extended drought have made conditions
optimal for an amazing diversity of wildflowers, but there was one in
particular that Milla insisted we had to find. She had seen it days before and she
promised it wasn’t far from the parking lot.

How far?

“Near LettuceLake!”

Ok, that’s not far. I had an appointment and had to be somewhere
as promised.

After an hour of stopping to photograph flowers I asked
again “how far?”

“Just at the bend in the trail!”

Thirty minutes later the trail bent. There amongst a myriad
of wildflowers, as promised, stood tall, a lone Simpson’s Grass-Pink (Calopogontuberosus var. simpsonii), a terrestrial orchid variety
only found in seasonally wet, marly soils.
The genus Calopogon translates to “beautiful beard” and refers to the
unique bristles on the upper lip of the three-petaled flower. The bristles give
the appearance of stamen and a false promise of nectar. While attempting to
land on the upper lip, heavier insects will cause it to bend, dipping them back
onto a mass of pollen grains which can then be transferred to the next flower
where cross-pollination is achieved.

This variety is distinguished from the common form, Tuberosus Grass-Pink Calopogon tuberosus) by a narrow and elongated upper lip and is
found in grassy savannahs (at the bend in the trail!)

We found several more plants nearby, which all seemed to
benefit from the recent fire and open canopy. It was well worth the walk and I
was thankful for trusting in Milla’s promise. It did make me wonder how many
insects have been tempted by the Grass-Pink’s deception and how many have
learned to turn around before wasting their time. I’m glad I didn’t.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

(Originally posted for Easter 2012) On Easter morning, my baby escaped from his sleeping
mother’s grasp, toddled into the hallway and found a basket full of “grass” and
a few starter eggs. He then proceeded to instinctively embark on an egg hunt
throughout the house. He was a noisy predator and was discovered quickly but we
permitted the search to continue.

Eggs in the wild are not meant to be discovered. They are
buried, camouflaged or tucked away. They are laid singularly with maximum
parental protection or in multitudes with the hope that a percentage will
survive. The effort that reptiles, birds, insects, amphibians (and yes the
mammalian Platypus) go through to protect their potential offspring is perhaps
what makes it so interesting to seek out and discover eggs.

When an egg is found, there are often plenty of clues that
suggest who might emerge at the conclusion of incubation (if at all). The
cotton candy-colored, spherical eggs in the top left corner are less than ¼
inch in diameter and have been deposited on a blade of cattail in a freshwater
marsh. Tiny Florida Apple Snails (Pomacea paludosa)
will hatch and descend to the water just several inches below.

Many birds camouflage their eggs with unique colors and
markings. As the egg descends and rotates through the oviduct, fixed pigment
glands color the shell and create unique works of art on the eggs of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) (top right corner).

The five glossy white PurpleMartin (Progne subis) eggs in the
bottom left corner would be conspicuous in any hanging bird nest, but in the
cavity of a tree or in a bird house, color serves little purpose.

Not every nest is successful. The turtle eggs in the bottom
right corner were dug up and eaten. The colorless, ping pong-sized eggs were
discovered, most likely by an animal with a good sniffer.

I can still recall the thrill my sister experienced
when she found an Easter egg at my grandmother’s when we were kids. My parents
were amused. It was the day before Easter and this well hidden, well
camouflaged egg had remained undiscovered for nearly a year.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

I offer you a green
Turkey Vulture. The photo is real and untouched. I took it. I do apologize that
it has the same blurred quality to it that most of the photos of Bigfoot and
the Loch Ness Monster have. A canal full of alligators separated me and the emerald-feathered
bird and a zoom lens can only do so much.

There are no shortages of natural curiosities on the shores
of LakeTrafford in Immokalee, FL. The 1600-acre
lake has more alligator per acre than anywhere on the planet. Colorful Roseate
Spoonbills, Purple Gallinules, Tri-Colored Herons and Little Blue Herons stalk
the shoreline. The nearby marina is home to several exotic birds like Macaws,
Cockatoos and an African Grey Parrot. So when I saw what I thought was a
Peacock sipping water in front of a backdrop of Pond Apples (Annona glabra)and Alligator Flag (Thaliageniculata) it didn’t seem entirely out of place. As I approached, it
quickly became clear that I had been fooled by aTurkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
in disguise.

Turkey Vultures are so named because of the red, featherless
skin on their head that is similar to the male Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).
Turkey Vulture feathers are black to brown with white markings underneath from
the wing tips to the body. The legs are pink to white. This vulture was green.
Closer inspection shows that feathers closest to the tail are almost entirely
green while those closer to the shoulders are brown with green tips. The eye
appears white but is sunken and desiccated suggesting an old or sick bird.

I wish I had an explanation. As the photo has been passed
around, the theories include: splattered with paint on St. Patty’s Day (this blog was originally posted in March),
inadvertently doused with liquid copper (an orange tree fungicide), a
nutritional deficiency, stricken with a parasite or an escaped character from
World of Warcraft. What do you think?

I was wrong. I can admit it. Normally I would say “I don’t know what that is.” but in this case I was quite sure that the Wood Stork (Mycte...

.

Hey! Look at me!

I was born and raised just west of the Everglades. Growing up at the Florida Monkey Sanctuary, a 10-acre, private non-profit organization owned and operated by my parents.
My experience at the sanctuary involved not only working with hundreds of primates of various species, but also provided the opportunity to become immersed in the natural history of the area, where the sanctuary alone was home to Sandhill Cranes, Wood Storks, Indigo Snakes, River Otters and abundance of other native wildlife. Leaving the subtropics for colder climates, I attended the University of Vermont and graduated with a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. I returned to southwestern Florida and guided for the Everglades Day Safari from 1998-2000 before once again trading sandals for snowshoes in Vermont where I worked for six years as a Park Ranger at Lowell Lake State Park in Londonderry, VT. and for several years as the Director of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Manchester, VT.
Now I'm back in Florida and I’ve returned with a vengeance, which I keep caged like an angry monkey with a bucket full of poop and deadly accuracy.